As cooler weather enters the the USA, it is time to change gardening practices in preparation for the autumn. Fall can be a beautiful, vibrant time in your Calabasas yard, but you must utilize it properly to prepare for winter. Here are four methods to prep your landscaping for Autumn.
How to Prep Your Landscaping for Autumn
1. Take Stock
The first thing to do is a garden inventory. What plants were thriving in spring and summer? What won’t make it into the cooler fall weather? Start making a plan for the oncoming season – what plants you want to include in your landscape and others that you can’t. Some may need to be moved or divided because they have outgrown their space. Tracking the health and growth of your plants each season can help for planning years into the future.
2. Replace Annuals
With summer fading, it is time to replace your hot-weather annuals with the cool tones of autumn flowers. Mums are an inexpensive option that can add a lot of color to a yard. Remember to try and save the annual seeds from your flowers so you can replant them next year! Remember, the end of fall is time to remove all annuals, giving the soil time to recuperate.
3. Add Amendments
The hot, dry summer months can damage your landscape. Water evaporates quickly, and plants and soil lose nutrients during summer growth and heat. When preparing for autumn, it is vital to replace these nutrients. You can use soil amendments to improve its various properties such as aeration, drainage, structure, water retention, permeability, and more. For example, some natural amendments are leaf mold, wood ash, compost, bark, peat moss, and manure.
4. Winter is Coming
Even though you are preparing for fall right now, it is critical to keep in mind preparing for winter as well. The cold season will sneak up on us quickly, and you don’t want to get too far behind. The list of must-dos is extensive – deadheading faded flowers, dividing overgrown plants, making plant location or design changes, or even digging up bulbs for winter storage, the list goes on. As you make these changes, it is a great time to take stock of your soil, searching for bare spots and covering them with compost, mulch, or other organic material to prepare for winter and spring planting.
Design Scaping – Landscape Designs
Do you want a garden design built to last through the seasons with little to no effort from you? Give us a call at Design Scapes to learn more!
